Preview Etoile de Bessèges 2026 stage 3 - Can there be chaos on the race's hardest stage?
CyclingThursday, 05 February 2026 at 16:21
The 2026 Etoile de Bessèges will be taking place from the 4th to the 8th of February and is the first stage-race of the season in France, and one of the first in Europe. We preview stage 3, which is set to start at 12:15 and finish at 16:05CET.
One of the cornerstone early-season stage races on the European cycling calendar... First held in 1971 as a one-day event called the Grand Prix Bessèges, it evolved into a multi-day stage race by 1974 and has been a five-day fixture almost every year since, marking the dawn of the professional road season in southern France each February.
Over the decades there has been a wide variety of winners in this race, big names who have marked generations: Jan Raas, Eddy Planckaerts, Adrie van der Poel, Robbie McEwen, Thomas Voeckler... This decade we have seen GC wins from Benoît Cosnefroy, Tim Wellens, Benjamin Thomas, Neilson Powless, Mads Pedersen and most recently Kévin Vauquelin who dominated the 2025 edition with victories at the queen stage and final time trial.
Stage 3 is a Bessèges classic already, with the stage starting and finishing in the town that the race has been named after. It is a stage characterized by its final circuit which features two rolling climbs. These can be used for attacks and a GC battle, to thin down the peloton, or even to crown the success of a breakaway. A sprint however remains quite possible at the end of the day.
Profiles: Bessèges - Bessèges
Stage 3: Bessèges - Bessèges, 162.3 kilometers
Prediction Etoile de Bessèges 2026 stage 3:
*** Paul Lapeira, Maxime Decomble, Lukas Kubis
** Sandy Dujardin, Jordan Labrosse
* Ewen Costiou, Dylan Teuns, Clément Izquiero, Alexandre Delettre, Tom Crabbe, Niklas Larsen, Matyas Kopecky, Andrea Misfud, Lorenzo Rota
** Sandy Dujardin, Jordan Labrosse
* Ewen Costiou, Dylan Teuns, Clément Izquiero, Alexandre Delettre, Tom Crabbe, Niklas Larsen, Matyas Kopecky, Andrea Misfud, Lorenzo Rota
Pick: Maxime Decomble
How: Reduced group sprint.
Original: Rúben Silva
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